Brasov, Bran and Bucharest
We had been planning this part of the trip really day-by-day in an attempt to do a bit of skiing in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains before heading back west to be in Germany in time for our booking at a Pension (I forget the name.) in Rothenburg on December 12. Well, there’s no snow in the mountains, yet, so it looks like I won’t be skiing in Romania. In addition, we had been hearing mixed reviews on Bucharest, so we weren’t sure how long we’d stay here.
Anyway, we had booked two nights in Brasov and the following two nights in Bucharest (to make sure we had a place to stay for the weekend), so we had one full day to explore the Brasov area. We woke up Thursday morning and decided that we should try to make it to Bran to see “Dracula’s” Castle. The links between Bram Stoker’s Dracula and this castle are questionable, but Dan will likely fill you in on all the details later. We took a bus, which took about an hour or so, and got back to Brasov in mid-afternoon — in time to tour the Black Church and hike up to the White Tower and the Black Tower.
On Friday we took the train to Bucharest. This was the most modern train we had been on since Austria. The train systems in Hungary and Romania are much less modern than the systems we encountered in the other parts of Europe we visited. The trains are old, run down and dirty; the stations are old, run down and dirty; and information is hard to come by or inaccurate. This is very frustrating!
Yesterday was Romania’s National Day. So, we walked “downtown” with a group from the hostel to join the other mobs of Romanians to celebrate National Day. And, today, after Dan and I picked up some contact solution for me — which was really hard to find and expensive — and some new English books to read, we did a self-guided walk around central Bucharest, seeing the gigantic Peoples Palace, touring the National Military Museum, which included information about the 1989 Revolution, and seeing the former Central Committee of the Communist Party building, the scene of Nicolae Ceausescu’s infamous last speech on its balcony. Amid cries of “Down with Ceausescu,” he escaped in a helicopter from the roof. Meanwhile, the crowds were riddled with bullets, and many died. It was very sobering to walk the streets where this happened so recently.
We picked up some groceries on our way back to the hostel and had supper there.
Tim
Tags: Brasov, Bucharest, Europe
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